


My Love (in brackets)

by backtoblack101



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, Drabble, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, fingers crossed it works, so i can focus on the thing i actually wanna write, this is really just me trying to purge some ficlet ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28418382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/backtoblack101/pseuds/backtoblack101
Summary: Dani’s never said it though.Jamie thinks Dani’s never said it because she knows, knows that it’s a lot harder for Jamie to say something like this than it is for her.She also thinks that’s not entirely true though. That Dani has said it to her.Over and over she’s said it to her without actually saying it.She lets Jamie know, while still allowing Jamie her space to be the one to say it first.Or,the five times Dani didn't need to say 'I love you' because Jamie already knows Dani loves her.
Relationships: Dani Clayton & Jamie, Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 127





	My Love (in brackets)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just purging my brain of some drabble ideas I had that have no home in the fic I'm currently working on. I've also reached a road block in the fic I'm currently writing so this is also being shown the light of day in the hopes that it'll motivate me to go back to the other thing, idk?
> 
> The title is from an Irish poem called 'Mo Ghrá-sa (idir lúibíní)' which is about a woman who loves her partner not for all the traditional reasons someone might love someone else. Instead she loves him for who he is and what he does when they're together, sorta in the private moments I guess. Idk I just thought it was a nice sentiment.
> 
> Oh also all typos etc are mine and mine alone so sorry about that one!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Jamie’s known for a while now.

A full year in fact.

She packs the soil in gently around the moonflower, careful not to disturb its roots in the small pot. Hums softly to herself to drown out any of the anxious thoughts in her head.

She’s also known how Dani’s felt for a long time.

A full year in fact.

She dusts off her hands on her work overalls and looks around their kitchen. She knows Dani’s due back from the grocery store shortly and she wants to store this somewhere Dani won’t think to look before tomorrow.

Dani’s never said it though.

Jamie thinks Dani’s never said it because she knows, knows that it’s a lot harder for Jamie to say something like this than it is for her.

She spies one of the cupboards below their TV. The one her gardening books are stored in and not much else. She thinks if Dani chooses tonight as the night she takes an interest in starting a herb garden then she deserves to find this early.

She also thinks that’s not entirely true though. That Dani has said it to her.

Over and over she’s said it to her without actually saying it.

She lets Jamie know, while still allowing Jamie her space to be the one to say it first.

Jamie opens the cupboard door and rearranges some of her books. Carefully lifts the moonflower onto the shelf and fusses over it for longer than is strictly necessary. Makes sure it’s safe in amongst her books and their shared junk.

She closes the cupboard door and smiles.

Allows her mind the luxury of wandering for just a moment back over the little things that brought her here.

That brought them here.

Afterall falling in love doesn’t happen in the grand moments. It happens in the in between ones. It happens in the quiet mornings, the busy days, and the lazy afternoons.

Falling in love happens in the moments when a person is able to coexist with someone through the good, the bad, and the downright weird and still come out the other side smiling.

Falling in love doesn’t happen once. It happens over and over, each moment falling like confetti around two people choosing to build a life together.

Falling in love is rare, and for the first time in Jamie’s life she’s willing to grab it with both hands and hold onto it for as long as she can.

\----------

1.

“Jay?”

Jamie shifts on the bed at the sound of her name being called from the small adjoining bathroom. She rubs at her eyes, pushing away the shroud of sleep that’d been threatening to pull her under for the past fifteen minutes or so.

“Yeah?”

“Can you uh…” A pause. “Can you come here for a sec?”

A lightning bolt of worry jolts through her and she’s on her feet and halfway to the bathroom before her brain even really has a chance to catch up. They got to The States two weeks ago, and every night for two weeks Jamie’s slept by Dani’s side as she’s tossed and turned and woken in a cold sweat.

Last night though, in this dingy little motel somewhere in the back ass of nowhere Texas, was the first night in two weeks Dani had slept through the night. Jamie had been too cautious to be optimistic about what that might mean.

As she pushes open the bathroom door she’s afraid she was right to be cautious, right to be worried that The Lady had merely found a new way to torment Dani.

Her fear is short lived though.

Inside the bathroom Dani is standing with her hands up in the air, her fingers splayed out, as if she’d been caught in the middle of some kind of jazz hands dance routine. She’s smiling sheepishly, and Jamie’s worry instantly melts away.

“Alright there Poppins?”

“Eh no,” Dani admits, “not really.”

“Right. Okay. Anything I can uh, help with?”

Dani sighs. “Unfortunately yes.” She looks back and forth between her two hands. “I just pained my nails you see.”

“Oh right,” Jamie nods, glancing at Dani’s hands. “Lovely shade of red.”

Dani rolls her eyes. “Thanks.” She clears her throat. “The issue is though, I need to uh- I need to pee.”

“Oh…” Jamie glances down at the toilet. “And that’d take the nailpolish off, would it?”

Dani smiles softly. “It’s so cute how little you know about girly things.”

“Hey!” Jamie shoots her an indignant look. “Just because I used to spend my days knee deep in dirt doesn’t mean I can’t throw on a dress every now and then.”

Dani hums in agreement. “It does mean you’re probably not likely to take the time to manicure your nails though,” she counters. 

“True.”

“Which means you’re probably not likely to know how long it takes nailpolish to dry.”

Jamie considers it for a second before conceding. “Also true.”

“I rest my case,” Dani teases.

“Whatever this favour is, you’re getting less and less likely to ever receive it,” Jamie warns, though she steps across the small space towards Dani as she speaks, until she’s close enough to reach out and pull her into her body if she so wished.

“Well you see I kind of need to pee,” Dani reminds her, almost shyly. “And I can’t really uh-” she glances down at her jeans. “Do that while my nails are still wet.”

Jamie glances down then too, down at the belt buckle and zipper and buttons constricting Dani. “I see…” She hums, nodding slowly. “Suppose you need me to undress you then?”

“Suppose I do,” Dani agrees, glancing back up to catch Jamie’s eye and grinning. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

Jamie scoffs. “Would I mind undressing a pretty girl mere feet from a cozy little double bed?” Jamie considers it for just a second. “Don’t think I would you know.”

Dani rolls her eyes. “How about you undress me enough to use the toilet for now.”

“Spoilsport,” Jamie huffs. 

Dani quirks her brow. “Never said I’d be getting re-dressed afterwards, did I?”

“The lady makes a good point,” Jamie concedes, closing the final gap between them and resting her hands on Dani’s hips.

“I always make good points, you just rarely listen,” Dani tells her, lifting her hands away from Jamie or risk her nailpolish becoming smudged on her t-shirt or in the wild curls of her hair.

“I always listen,” Jamie protests fondly, moving her fingers forward until they’re able to work open the belt buckle. “Moved half ways across the world all because of listening to you, didn’t I?” She adds, this time whispering it against the shell of Dani’s ear as she works open the button of her jeans then pushes her zipper down.

“You did,” Dani agrees, planting a soft kiss on Jamie’s cheek. “You really did.”

Jamie smiles. “And I’d do it all again.”

Dani draws back, just far enough to look her in the eye. “Oh yeah?”

Jamie tugs lightly at Dani’s jeans, pushing them down to her mid thigh. “Had I known it’d be this romantic I’d have done it all even sooner.” She glances down at Dani’s waist. “Underwear too?”

Dani smiles a silly grin that makes Jamie just a little dizzy. “Please.” 

She bites her lip when Jamie scrapes her nails down Dani’s sides before hooking her fingers around the elastic of her pants. She pushes them down slowly, until they meet her jeans. They’re staring at one another the whole time, and Jamie can’t help but feel like Dani’s looking at her as if she’d hung the moon and all the stars.

It sort of makes her breathless really, the idea that someone could ever look at her like that.

“You really would, wouldn’t you?” Dani hums after a moment - a moment of them just standing there with Jamie’s hands resting on Dani’s bare thighs. “If you could go back you’d do it all the same?”

Jamie takes Dani in, her one blue eye sharply contrasted against her brown one. Thinks there’s probably a lot of things she’d do differently if she could go back. Thinks both of them probably feel the same in that respect.

She also thinks right now all that stuff doesn’t really matter. Not when they’d said one day at a time. Not when this day consisted of her helping Dani out of her trousers to use the toilet because she’d taken a whim to paint her nails.

“All the important stuff, yeah.” Jamie settles on finally. “Would you?”

Dani doesn’t even pause to consider it, just smiles warmly and nods.

“Even the bad bits,” she admits quietly. “I’d do all of it again to be right here.”

\------------

2.

“Eh, Jay…” Dani pokes her head out the bathroom door, casts her gaze over to Jamie, who’s in the middle of trying to figure out which boxes should be carried to the kitchen and which should remain in their livingroom.

Their livingroom. 

Jamie can’t quite get over it really. Three months on the road and another month living out of a dingy hotel room in Vermont and here they were. Moving all the boxes Dani’s mum had sent over from Iowa into their new apartment.

Above their new shop.

Starting their new life.

“Yeah?” Jamie looks up, Dani’s shy smile a welcome distraction from trying to guess what was delph and what was books without actually going to the trouble of opening the boxes.

“So I’ve a question…” Dani trails off awkwardly and Jamie quirks her brow.

“Fire away then,” she prompts after a moment, once it becomes clear that it’s a question Dani doesn’t really want to ask. 

“Eh, okay…” she clears her throat, remains silent.

“You want me to try guessing Poppins?”

“No, no I- I uh, I was just wondering really…” Dani rings her fingers together, hops from one foot to the other and steadily refuses to meet Jamie’s eye. “I was just I suppose wondering if you uh- If you thought that we’d maybe um…” she glances at the ceiling, blows out a breath.

Jamie tries her hardest not to look amused.

“I was wondering if you thought we’d reached the pooping stage of our relationship?”

“The…” Jamie stutters off to silence, her mind absolutely drawing a blank. “The what stage?”

“You heard me,” Dani shoots back, her anxiety melding into something a lot like defensiveness. 

“I mean I did, yeah,” Jamie agrees, scratching a hand through her curls. “Doesn’t mean I quite picked up what you’re on about though?”

Dani huffs out a frustrated breath. “The pooping phase, yknow,” she gestures into the bathroom. “When you _you know_ in front of someone.”

Jamie’s jaw drops. “You want me to…” she gestures towards the bathroom door dumbly. “Watch?”

“No!” Dani, thankfully, looks aghast at the suggestion - Jamie’s still just as lost as she had been thirty seconds ago.

“Oh thank fuck.” Jamie lets out a nervous laugh. “Really thought we were about to hit our first bump in the road there Poppins. Still not sure what you’re on about though.”

“It’s, it’s y’know.... When you’re at that point of knowing someone where it’s not weird if you,” she gestures vaguely, “ _go to the bathroom_ while they’re within earshot.”

It’s then that the penny drops. Jamie’s face scrunches, though she tries to hide it with a not so subtle clearing of her throat.

“Are you ah- are you telling me you’ve never,” now it’s Jamie’s turn to gesture, “while I’ve been in the next room?”

Dani nods.

“Dani…” Jamie releases a long slow breath, does all the maths up in her head and tries to put some logic on the situation. “We’ve been travelling together for months now. We’ve been sharing a room together for-” she pauses, works out the dates, “- four months.”

Dani nods again. “And?”

“And,” Jamie furrows her brow. “How?” She laments finally, instead of the thousand other questions that are rearing up now that she’s been dealt this new information. “I mean just how have you managed that?”

Dani shrugs. “Waited until you popped out for a few minutes, or until you were asleep or uh…” she trails off.

“Or what?” Jamie’s not sure she wants the answer, but they’re here now, in the middle of a conversation Jamie never thought she’d be having.

“Well…” Dani licks her lips, looks down at the floor and studies her sock clad feet as if they’re the most interesting sock clad feet she’s ever seen. “You know how I go on walks sometimes to clear my head…”

Jamie quirks her brow. “You’re telling me you were actually clearing something else?”

“Don’t be gross!”

“Don’t wait four months to take shit in front of your girlfriend!”

Dani looks back up sharply. “My what?”

“Your…” And Jamie realises, realises that in all the months they’ve spent traveling they’ve never quite gotten around to putting a name on what this was - there was little need when at any moment a malevolent spirit could snatch it all away. “Your girlfriend.”

“I’m your girlfriend?” The panic in Dani’s eyes has melted away, the look it’s replaced by makes Jamie’s heart thump up against her rib cage, as if it’s trying to escape and slide across the floor to Dani’s feet.

“Not for much longer if you refuse to empty your bowls,” Jamie fires back, instead of saying all the stuff she really wants to say - stuff like how _girlfriend_ isn’t even really a word fitting to describe Dani but how it would have to do for now.

“You’re ruining the moment,” Dani huffs, though she’s still smiling.

“You ruined it first, with your weird questions,” Jamie fires back, not missing a beat.

“Well I think you’ve answered my weird question,” Dani admits, not even slightly embarrassed now by how this conversation has come about.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yea, taking a shit with your girlfriend in the next room unpacking boxes in your brand new apartment that you get to live with her in? Not really that weird at all,” Dani explains. “Kind of magical really.”

\----

3.

“Do you know what’s in this?” Dani holds up the tupperware box, something vaguely resembling green sludge making up its contents.

Jamie swings her legs from her perch on the kitchen counter, shrugs. “I’m not allowed to cook, remember? Can’t have been me that put it there.”

Dani sighs. “Are you going to be this unhelpful all afternoon?”

Jamie smiles and slides down off the counter. “Not sure,” she admits. “Haven’t decided yet.”

She wraps her arms around Dani’s waist. Leans in against the full length of her body and drops her head down onto her shoulder. She turns her head and plants a kiss against the corner of her neck.

“Not working,” Dani hums, though she makes no effort to move away.

Insead she wraps the hand not holding sludge around Jamie’s waist and turns them both until Dani’s facing into their open fridge. She places the tupperware down on the kitchen counter and reaches out again, this time snagging a bottle of sriracha. 

“This is basically empty.” She puts it on the counter next to the sludge. “And oh look,” she reaches into the fridge again, “another empty one right next to it.”

Jamie kisses her neck again. “What kind of monster would do such a thing?” She mumbles against her jaw.

“Same monster trying to stop us from cleaning out the fridge,” Dani replies calmly, ignoring the way Jamie’s nose nudges up across her jawline, followed by her lips.

She puts down the second bottle of sriracha and reaches this time for a wilted bag of spinach. Jamie lifts her head off Dani’s shoulder at the crinkling of the bag and looks around.

“Okay that one’s not on me, spinach lasts like thirty seconds from the minute you buy it.”

Dani hums in agreement. “Why supermarkets insist on selling it a kilo at a time is beyond me.”

She throws it amongst the ever growing pile on the counter and Jamie resumes her previous position, licking her way back up to where she’d left off on Dani’s jaw, just below the junction of her ear.

“Jay…” Dani groans, her head falling back a little to make more room. “You’re really not helping.”

“Am too,” Jamie whispers, her breath tickling the shell of Dani’s ear and sending a shiver down her spine. 

“Oh yea?” Dani reaches out again, this time bracing herself against one of the shelves in the fridge and leaning in further to Jamie’s embrace.

“Mhm…” Jamie runs her tongue up over Dani’s ear. “You’ve been worked up all week about the state of the fridge, just trying to help you release some of the tension.”

Dani snorts, the real undignified kind of snort, the kind of snort Jamie thinks is probably the most adorable sound in the world.

“I hate you,” Dani huffs.

Jamie kisses just behind her ear. “No you don’t.”

Dani pulls her head back then, forcing Jamie to look up at her. There’s a twinkle in her eye, one that Jamie’s seen countless times before. One that ties a knot in Jamie’s stomach and sends her heart stuttering.

“No,” Dani agrees after a moment, her lips twitching up into a smile. “I don’t.”

\----

4.

“This has been the worst week ever!” Dani groans, a dramatic arm thrown across her face.

She staggers across the scant space in their living room and ragdolls herself into Jamie’s arms, trusting her girlfriend to catch her without hesitation. She does.

Just about.

“Doing okay there Poppins?” Jamie queries, bowing her head to try and catch Dani’s eye through the curtain of blonde hair enveloping her face. 

It’s no use.

Instead she staggers her feet to give herself some leverage and attempts to hoist Dani up further in her arms so they can be face to face. With Dani lying against her like a scarecrow blown over from a storm it was proving difficult, though after some maneuvering she manages to pull Dani’s arms around her neck, wrapping her own around Dani’s waist.

“Didn’t you hear I’m having a shitty week?” Dani huffs eventually, burrowing her face into Jamie’s neck.

Jamie hums, runs one hand up and down Dani’s back soothingly. “I did,” she agrees, then, “anything I can do about it?”

Dani considers it for only a moment. Then she pulls away from the crook of Jamie’s neck, leans back just enough to look Jamie in the eye. She’s got a serious look on her face now, one Jamie knows only too well. She tries not to smile too knowingly. Knows that when Dani’s in this sort of a mood a too-knowing smile can annoy her.

“Kiss my forehead?” She requests, no, demands - the soft push of her forehead against Jamie’s lips dictates it as being a lot more demanding than questioning.

Now that Dani can’t see her face Jamie does smile. She peppers kisses against her forehead until Dani hums happily. Then she adds a few more just for good measure.

“Better?” She murmurs, pulling Dani closer as she shifts her head so their faces rest cheek to cheek.

She knows the answer’s going to be ‘no’. Knows that when Dani’s in this mood she’s not really satisfied until she’s gotten as many kisses off Jamie as she can manage.

It astounds her really. The thought that when Dani’s in a bad mood after a long week, the only thing that makes her feel any better is (quite literally) falling into Jamie’s arms and being kissed until they’re both giggling like idiots.

Sometimes it leads to the bedroom, or the kitchen counter, or even once the bathroom floor. A tangle of limbs and soft whimpers.

More often than not though it doesn’t go there at all. Both of them content just getting to cuddle up together after a long week braving the world.

“Not better…” Dani sighs, shaking her head against Jamie’s cheek. “Try again.”

So Jamie does, kisses her again, this time on the cheek, the eyelid, her nose. 

“How about now?” She quirks her brow, smiling softly when Dani just glares at her for stopping the kisses at all.

“It’s been a _really_ bad week Jay,” she whines, pushing her face forward again towards Jamie’s lips.

Jamie obliges and re-starts the assault of her kisses, raining them down all over her face. It’s only when her lips work their way back up to Dani’s forehead that she gets a new, better, idea on how to relieve some of the tension that the week has pushed between Dani’s shoulders.

She continues to trail kisses across Dani’s forehead until she comes to her temple. Then, without warning, she pulls Dani as close to her as possible and blows a raspberry against the side of her face.

She pushes Dani back a little in shock, careful to keep her held in her arms. “Ew, Dani?” She drawls, dialing up the dramatics and shooting her a disgusted look.

Dani swats weakly at her arm. “Don’t be mean.”

“I’m not--” Jamie cuts herself off, this time pursing her lips together and blowing out to mimic the sound from bedore. “-- Poppins, seriously?”

Dani throws her weight back against Jamie, almost toppling them both. “Stop that!” Dani burrows her head into the crook of Jamie’s neck. “You’re supposed to be kissing me not--”

Jamie cuts her off again with the same sound as before. 

“Stop!” Dani insists, though now Jamie can hear the laughter behind her demand. 

“I should be the one telling you that Poppins.” Jamie tries again to make the noise, but her own laughter is mingling with Dani’s now and so it sounds a little off this time.

“That one didn’t sound healthy,” Dani all but manages, her body now in soft convulsions of laughter against Jamie’s chest.

Jamie throws her head back in an undignified cackle and Dani takes the opportunity to blow a raspberry of her own against the column of Jamie’s neck.

“Disgusting,” Dani giggles, pushing Jamie away from her with all the strength she can muster between fits of laughter.

Jamie doesn’t miss a beat though. She grabs at Dani’s wrists and pulls them both back into the soft couch cushions behind her. She lands first and drags Dani down until the blonde is straddling her waist.

Jamie blows another noise out from between her lips. “Not while you’re sitting on me Poppins!”

Dani just laughs harder, drops her head down onto Jamie’s shoulder and wraps her arms around Jamie’s neck. Jamie makes the noise again, adds an _ew_ for good measure, and she can feel Dani gasping for air.

“Oh god,” Dani cries eventually, lifting herself away from Jamie’s shoulder and wiping tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper.

“Feeling better?” Jamie grins up at her, a little breathless from the laughter and a lot breathless from Dani’s rosey cheeks and untamable smile.

Dani hums her assertion, then glances down at Jamie, bringing both her hands up to cup her cheeks. “I am. Just a shame I had to find out my girlfriend is the worst person in the world in the process.”

“Oh yeah?” Jamie looks up at her, sees no sentiment of the sort behind her long lashes.

Dani strokes her thumbs across Jamie’s cheeks. Lets her eyes wander from her lips, to her nose, then up to her eyes. Her smile softens and she lets out a slow, steadying breath.

“Yea,” she whispers eventually, leaning down until her forehead rests against Jamie’s. “Yet somehow you’re still my favourite.”

\----

5.

Jamie rarely got a hangover.

Conditioning - that’s what she liked to tell people, people like Dani, when asked how she was able to bounce back after a night of heavy drinking. How she was able to get up at six in the morning and tend to her plants as if they hadn’t polished off an entire bottle of whiskey the night before.

It was all about conditioning.

She swore by it.

Usually.

Until now.

“Dani…” she cries weakly, unable to so much as lift her head off the pillow for fear the screaming pain behind her eyes would intensify if she did.

“Yea baby?” Dani coos softly, and Jamie feels the weight shift next to her as Dani sits on the edge of the bed.

It’s too much though, it’s all too much. “Shh,” she hums, a weak attempt at lifting her finger to her lips aborted mid journey when she realises her hand is too heavy. “No loud noises, just comfort.”

“Oh…” Dani whispers dramatically, and Jamie can tell she’s smiling even though she can’t quite open her eyes. “I see.”

She feels the bed shift again, then Dani’s arm draping gently across her waist. Her head resting on the pillow next to Jamie’s - her breath soft and cool against her cheek, her cheek that feels like it’s on fire for some reason.

“How…” Jamie laments quietly, the words seeming like so much effort against the back of her throat. “... did this happen?”

Dani kisses her cheek softly. “You tried to outdrink Henry Wingrave baby,” she reminds her. “It could have something to do with that?”

Jamie hums because she knows Dani’s right. Knows as well that she really doesn’t deserve all the sympathy she’s being offered, with Dani’s hand stroking up her side, and Dani’s lips peppering occasional kisses against her temple.

It had been Dani that had warned her when they’d gone to meet Henry and the kids the night before that just because Henry had gotten his life together enough to raise two children didn’t mean they were allowed to indulge him when he tried to order a round of drinks.

Jamie had really, truly taken that on board. Had really meant it when she’d looked Dani in the eye and sworn to her, right there in the middle of the hotel lobby Henry had taken the kids to so they could see them for the weekend, that she would under no circumstances allow him to cajole her into matching him drink for drink.

And then, as the night had worn on, and Dani had expertly pretended to be fussing over Flora’s new dress, or Miles’ new haircut any time Henry had offered to buy another round, Jamie had been left to shoulder his desire for a drinking buddy alone. Save the occasional pitying glance from Dani as he swapped them from bourbon to whiskey and then, eventually, on to gin.

_It’s from the same distillery_ he’d insisted, when he arrived with two gin glasses and Jamie hadn’t quite been sober enough to hide the horrified expression she’d shot at Dani. _It’s basically the same stuff as the whiskey when you think about it, just less aged._

And now here she was, some disgusting combination of a bourbon-whiskey-gin hangover, at least 70% her own doing, and Dani could mock her if she so wished. God knows she’d have enough ammunition to mock her every day for the rest of their lives together if she so chose. 

Instead though she’s murmuring in Jamie’s ear about how it’s okay, and how the painkillers would kick in any minute. Promising her that she’ll get her anything she likes if she thinks it’ll help ease the pain. Promising her she has no plans to leave her side for the rest of the day.

“I don’t deserve you…” Jamie mutters after a minute - or an hour, she’s not sure what time is at the moment.

“Oh yea?” Dani whispers, her fingers playing idly with the hem of Jamie’s pyjama top.

“Mhm…” Jamie manages, turning her head just slightly until she’s able to look Dani in the eye. “Here you are lookin’ after me when I don’t really deserve lookin’ after.”

Dani’s eyes crinkle around the edges with her smile. “God you’re so cute like this,” she gushes, quick to explain when Jamie shoots her an almost annoyed look. “Your accent gets so strong when you’re not feeling well and I dunno…” she shrugs awkwardly on the pillow next to her. “It’s just nice to get to be the one doing the looking after. It’s nice to be able to look after you.”

“Well then get your fill Poppins, because I don’t plan on ever doin’ this again.” She fights back a wince as she speaks, another shooting pain pinging around in what’s left of her brain.

Dani leans in, kisses the tip of her nose. “I’m glad you’ve no immediate plans,” she admits. “Cute and all as your little northern accent is when it’s out in full force.”

Jamie hums a little laugh, then allows Dani to pull her into her chest. Allows herself to rest her head on Dani’s shoulder and wrap her arm around Dani’s waist. Allows their legs to tangle together and allows Dani’s hand to stroke up and down her arm in soothing motions.

She’s almost asleep when Dani says it. Thinks maybe that Dani thinks she’s already asleep. It’s barely above a whisper, and Jamie’s almost sure it’s not quite meant for her ears.

Sort of makes it even more special, that Dani’s not saying it for Jamie to hear. Instead she’s just saying it because she feels it so strongly right now in this moment, as Jamie clings pathetically to her side, reeking of alcohol and looking an absolute state.

_You’re the love of my life. I’ll do this forever if I can._

\------

“Someone’s having their big thought of the day…” Dani’s singsong voice pulls her from her puddle of thought, pulls her eyes off the cupboard under the TV and around to the door where her girlfriend is standing, arms laden with shopping bags.

“Oh, uh- yeah.” Jamie runs her hand through her hair and huffs out a laugh. “Just thinking how lucky I am.”

“Oh yea?” Dani’s face breaks out into a full grin.

“Yeah.” Jamie agrees, her smile mirroring Dani’s as she watches the blonde shuffle into their apartment.

“Wanna show me how lucky you are by helping me put away these groceries then?” Dani teases, dumping her bags on the counter.

“I’d put away shopping every day for the rest of my life if that was the best way to show you how I feel.”

Dani smiles at her, warm and soft. Jamie strides across the room and kisses her cheek. Then, wordlessly, the two set about unpacking the bags.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> That's that. Not sure why there's so much bodily functions related content in there but oh well? 
> 
> The poop story has some real life inspiration (I mean they all do, but that's the one I feel the need to explain), not from my love life thank god, but I do have a friend who made herself ill because when she first started seeing her boyfriend she stayed at his house for a long weekend and well... yeah. Long story short I had to convince her to talk to him about it and he was, rightfully, horrified that it had gone on so long and begged her to start pooping at his house. Romantic really.
> 
> ANYWAY, let me know what you thought!


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